Just saw this tonight. A very, very ambitious movie. There's a lot of cool stuff happening, but its reach definitely sometimes exceeds its grasp (in a way, this is somewhat thematically appropriate). Plenty of fantastic set pieces and a good amount of compelling drama, but things tended to get cringe-worthy pretty quickly whenever anyone started talking "science." I'm a pretty huge science nerd, so these moments took me out of the film. I should definitely say that I think most of you will be pleasantly surprised with Zimmer's score. Refreshingly different from the bombast for which he's famous. Possibly my favorite work of his since The Thin Red Line.

Just finished Cormac McCarthy's Suttree. Funny, sad, and written in stupefyingly beautiful prose (it might not be evident from later, more tersely written works like No Country for Old Men, but this guy is an absolute master of imagery). Currently about 150 pages into Gravity's Rainbow. Thus far, it's proving a tougher swallow. Though Pynchon's talent is undeniable, there's always been something about that cheeky-yet-politically-heavy-handed American species of historiographic metafiction that sticks in my craw a little (not for especially political reasons, mind). We'll see, though; there's still a lot of the book left to explore.

Also, Meg Bowles occupies this interesting niche between more melodic space music a la Demby and more purely ambient music. Her newest, The Shimmering Land, is excellent: http://www.megbowlesmusic.com/

Novus Magnificat was a crucial part of my journey to ambient music. It got me into space music in a big way, and somewhere in my ferreting for similar releases I happened upon Roach's The Magnificent Void. That sealed the deal.

I'll second the recommendation of Oophoi, and I'd add that our own Seren Ffordd has made some wonderful "space ambient" albums. Ydd Hwnt y Seren a Llygedin is a personal favorite. Very, very deep and vast, that one. Needless to say, you should also check out The Martian Chronicles, a fantastic collab between these two artists: http://serenffordd.bandcamp.com/album/the-martian-chronicles

Oophoi's two aforementioned posthumous release are both excellent; I Hear the Wind Singing, in particular, has to rank among my favorite of Gigi's works.

Dagaz was an excellent "grower," and Grassow's untitled collab with Closing the Eternity is, as has been noted by others at several points, just sublime.

Meg Bowles' new release is a fantastic journey.

Seren Ffordd's Halo is a lovely tribute. Love how patiently it develops.

Parhelion - Temples in Ice. Only EP-length, but the sound design here is incredible.

Also, though it came out last year, I've really been digging Shrine's Somnia, released on Cyclic Law (usually, what they put out is too martial and cheesy for my tastes, but occasionally a gem comes along, like this one).

Heavy music was my first love. I wasn't really interested in music at all until high school, and it was Tool's AEnima that finally did the trick.

Of late, I've really been into the work of Ben Sharp, who records under the name Cloudkicker. Complex, layered, angular, odd-time, HEAVY guitar work that nevertheless has a great sense of warmth and spaciousness, making the whole thing feel quite majestic. This stuff hits a lot of my ambient buttons, but in a very different way. There's a subtly-infused indie sensibility and a weird sort of nostalgia that accompanies the proceedings. All the heaviness aside, this is some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. And, it's all instrumental, so no angsty grunting of pre-teen caliber poetry here.

I've been playing it quite a bit as well; it's one of my regular "sleep" CDs at the moment. It didn't quite grab me as immediately as Elsewhere I did, but it has surely and steadily grown on me. Great stuff.

This is incredibly sad. Gigi is one of the giants of my ambient universe. The first album of his I'd heard was not actually one of his "major" releases (The Spirals of Time, Celestial Geometries, Athlit) but Time Fragments vol. 2. I was instantly captivated, particularly with the second track, "The Last Farewell." I don't think I'd ever been moved in quite that way by ambient music before. The sense of longing was so palpable, it was almost too much.

I quickly became one of those rabid fans of whom Mike spoke. In fact, it was my need to collect all of his Umbra and Penumbra recordings that initially brought me to Hypnos. It's too bad that the Penumbra releases in particular didn't receive more positive attention. There are some fantastic gems there.

I never corresponded with Gigi personally, but it seems like he was a wonderful, generous human being. Certainly his music brought us all a little closer to the stars. May they now welcome him as he so ardently welcomed them.

Meg Bowles - her 2011 release, A Quiet Light, is one of the best fusions of space and ambient in years. To release something this excellent after a more than 10 year absence is, IMO, unprecedented.

Great call. Back in the day, it seemed she was always in the shadows of the space music giants (Demby, Stearns, Serrie, etc.), but she's really done something awesome and unique with this release, expertly traversing a very fine line between classic space music and pure ambient.

I've been enthralled by Seren Ffordd's music ever since hearing The Portal's Dreaming on my girlfriend's home theater system (ok, technically, it was her dad's) while playing Dead Space. I'd just splurged on a ton of umbra/penumbra releases and loaded them all up into the CD changer. The Portal's Dreaming came up right when I entered a particularly eerie zero-g section of the game. It all fit together just perfectly. I definitely hope The Martian Chronicles gets Andy some more exposure.

Tau Ceti also merits mention here. He's mostly known as Gigi's collaborator on Celestial Geometries, but he has some great solo releases as well. Some of his EPs are delightfully otherworldly and experimental (Achernar, Albhali, Pulsar, etc.). Achernar, in particular, is quite the trip.